Looking back on all of the work I have done for this Self Directed project since January, I am astonished!
I am so proud of all of my time and work. I have put endless amounts of hours into this entire project (an estimated 150 hours) - far more than I could have ever anticipated. Although I have not been able to reach some of my milestones, I realize the work and experience have more than made up for those milestones.
I've learned that I am dedicated and can complete large (dare I say daunting) tasks on my own. I also learned the value of feedback and that although I do need a lot of work to be a professional creative director, I can do it if I put my mind to it!
Thursday, April 12, 2012
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Feedback
After finishing my storyboards I was fortunate enough (and extremely grateful) to get the feedback of two storyboard professionals. Local animation director and storyboard artist extraordinaire Ron Doucet looked over my work and provided expert feedback for both the script and the boards. The feedback was thorough, thoughtful and just what I needed to hear!
Also Sequential Art instructor here at the NSCC, Crystal Marshall provided feedback on the boards and script as well, again very useful and a great perspective!
Both professionals suggested some changes in the story, particularly at the end. So my partners and I plan to get together to rework the script so that I may complete the boards to their fullest potential, at a later time. As such I will not be able to complete an animatic of my boards for this Self Directed class as expected. Although disappointed I cannot meet my deadlines, I want everything to be perfect before an animatic is completed. Perfection is important to me.
Despite the fact I will not complete the animatic, I couldn't be happier with the work I did this semester. The project storyboards alone would have taken me 120+ hours from conception to completion, not including the research, storyboard tests and character designs.
This class has been busy, crazy and somewhat harmful to my health and sanity, but I wouldn't change a thing!
Also Sequential Art instructor here at the NSCC, Crystal Marshall provided feedback on the boards and script as well, again very useful and a great perspective!
Both professionals suggested some changes in the story, particularly at the end. So my partners and I plan to get together to rework the script so that I may complete the boards to their fullest potential, at a later time. As such I will not be able to complete an animatic of my boards for this Self Directed class as expected. Although disappointed I cannot meet my deadlines, I want everything to be perfect before an animatic is completed. Perfection is important to me.
Despite the fact I will not complete the animatic, I couldn't be happier with the work I did this semester. The project storyboards alone would have taken me 120+ hours from conception to completion, not including the research, storyboard tests and character designs.
This class has been busy, crazy and somewhat harmful to my health and sanity, but I wouldn't change a thing!
Monday, March 26, 2012
DONE!
Its a fight between whether I'm more mentally exhausted or proud- but either way, I finished my storyboards!!
I decided I wanted to get the boards done before the 30th of the month (in order to have ample time for revisions), so I put the petal to the metal and tore though the boards, finishing long before I ever expected. Good lord, I'm pooped... Almost 100% of my spare time for the last week and a half went into these... but I'm done!
Now to sleep.
I decided I wanted to get the boards done before the 30th of the month (in order to have ample time for revisions), so I put the petal to the metal and tore though the boards, finishing long before I ever expected. Good lord, I'm pooped... Almost 100% of my spare time for the last week and a half went into these... but I'm done!
Now to sleep.
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Oh boy
Progress for the cleaning of the storyboards is going great.
I forgot that I didn't schedule work for myself during the March break... so let's just say I'm a bit further ahead than I expected. Haha...
Even with my March break work, I did some math and realized in order to finish my project on time, I will need to clean 6 storyboard pages a day for the rest of the month. One page takes anywhere between 30 minutes to 60 minutes to complete, so on average I will need to put in 4 hours a day to finish.
Oh boy.
Wish me luck.
I forgot that I didn't schedule work for myself during the March break... so let's just say I'm a bit further ahead than I expected. Haha...
Even with my March break work, I did some math and realized in order to finish my project on time, I will need to clean 6 storyboard pages a day for the rest of the month. One page takes anywhere between 30 minutes to 60 minutes to complete, so on average I will need to put in 4 hours a day to finish.
Oh boy.
Wish me luck.
Sunday, March 11, 2012
Revised boards
Here is an updated photo of the storyboards with all of the revisions made!
The boards have all been scanned and are ready for clean up, which will happen during the break!
Also I was talking it over with my cohorts and we agreed that two more character designs would be okay to post (and wouldn't give too much of our story away).
So here we have two minor characters for our pilot (if we continue with the series we hope for the characters to become more important).
The boards have all been scanned and are ready for clean up, which will happen during the break!
Also I was talking it over with my cohorts and we agreed that two more character designs would be okay to post (and wouldn't give too much of our story away).
So here we have two minor characters for our pilot (if we continue with the series we hope for the characters to become more important).
Monday, March 5, 2012
Pilot Project Storyboards
Here we have my rough storyboards!
This photo was taken before all of the storyboards were put on my wall- now my wall is COVERED in them!
This week I am doing some revisions to the storyboards (as seen below) and on Friday I expect to begin the clean up process!
I am very proud and happy to say I am 100% on schedule for this project! I expect that I will be able to stay on schedule and have my clean storyboards finished in 3 weeks! I'm very excited to get the storyboards completed so that my friends and I may begin the animation process for the Pilot Project... but that is still several weeks away!
This photo was taken before all of the storyboards were put on my wall- now my wall is COVERED in them!
This week I am doing some revisions to the storyboards (as seen below) and on Friday I expect to begin the clean up process!
I am very proud and happy to say I am 100% on schedule for this project! I expect that I will be able to stay on schedule and have my clean storyboards finished in 3 weeks! I'm very excited to get the storyboards completed so that my friends and I may begin the animation process for the Pilot Project... but that is still several weeks away!
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Character Designs
As mentioned before the animation project, for which I am creating these storyboards, is for Teletoon's "Pilot Project" (click HERE for details). Due to the competitive nature of the Pilot Project my cohorts and I have discussed not revealing too much of our pilot idea online. As such I will not be posting all 3 of my character sheets- but I will post this one!
This is our character Gary Johnson.
Once the pilot project is complete I would be happy to share our behind-the-scenes/preproduction work!
This is our character Gary Johnson.
Once the pilot project is complete I would be happy to share our behind-the-scenes/preproduction work!
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
El Dorado Storyboards
Here is just a taste of my storyboards from a few scenes of The Road to Eldorado!
As mentioned I watched 6 minutes of the movie and storyboarded the scenes out, so I had an idea of what 6 minutes of storyboards translates into work wise and paper wise.
It was a great assignment because it also reinforced a lot of tips and tricks about storyboards that I've picked up, such as rule of thirds, good staging, expressions and poses.
I am VERY excited to get into working on my own storyboards. I realize it will be a lot more work than just copying what I'm seeing off of a screen, but it'll be a great experience!
Finishing script and character design
This week I am very excited!
I will be finishing off the script for the animation project me and a few friends are working on. I will then finalize a character design for the main characters and create a character sheet for each character, for future reference.
This is definitely going to be one of my favourite parts of this project.
I will post the character designs as soon as they're complete.
Now I'm going to scan some of my El Dorado storyboards and post them!
I will be finishing off the script for the animation project me and a few friends are working on. I will then finalize a character design for the main characters and create a character sheet for each character, for future reference.
This is definitely going to be one of my favourite parts of this project.
I will post the character designs as soon as they're complete.
Now I'm going to scan some of my El Dorado storyboards and post them!
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Biting off WAY more than I could chew
Referring back to my blog entry from a few days ago; I WAY over estimated myself.
Thinking that I could do 5-7 minutes worth of storyboards in one week was nuts! its two weeks later and I'm still trucking away at them. Whats worse than thinking I could create about 6 minutes of storyboards in one week? I thought I could create 20 minutes of storyboards the next week! Even if I wasn't balancing school and work that would be crazy!!
So, I've decided to revise my goals schedule now that I have learned my lesson. My schedule will now look something like this:
Feb 6 - Feb 10 FINISH ROAD TO ELDORADO STORYBOARDS
Feb 13 - Feb 17 CREATE CHARACTER SHEETS FOR PILOT PROJECT ANIMATION (FINISH SCRIPT)
Feb 20 - Feb 24 BEGIN STORYBOARD ROUGHS
Feb 27 - Mar2 FINISH STORYBOARD ROUGHS- SEEK CRITIQUE
Mar 5 - Mar 9 MAKE ANY REVISIONS TO ROUGH STORYBOARDS AND BEGIN CLEAN STORYBOARDS
Mar 19 - Mar 23 CONTINUE STORYBOARDS
Mar 26 - Mar30 FINISH STORYBOARDS - SEEK CRITIQUE
Apr 2 - Apr 6 COMPLETE ANY FURTHER REVISIONS AND SCAN STORYBOARD
Apr 9 - Apr 13 CREATE ANIMATIC FROM STORYBOARDS FOR ANIMATION USE.
I admit I am disappointed that I was unable to achieve my goals. I pride myself in being a very hard and dedicated worker, so when I am unsuccessful with meeting goals (even ridiculous ones), I'm unhappy.
But, it has been a learning experience and I feel I have given myself a better time frame to complete my new goals.
My next blog entry will have some examples of my Road to Eldorado storyboards!
Thinking that I could do 5-7 minutes worth of storyboards in one week was nuts! its two weeks later and I'm still trucking away at them. Whats worse than thinking I could create about 6 minutes of storyboards in one week? I thought I could create 20 minutes of storyboards the next week! Even if I wasn't balancing school and work that would be crazy!!
So, I've decided to revise my goals schedule now that I have learned my lesson. My schedule will now look something like this:
Feb 6 - Feb 10 FINISH ROAD TO ELDORADO STORYBOARDS
Feb 13 - Feb 17 CREATE CHARACTER SHEETS FOR PILOT PROJECT ANIMATION (FINISH SCRIPT)
Feb 20 - Feb 24 BEGIN STORYBOARD ROUGHS
Feb 27 - Mar2 FINISH STORYBOARD ROUGHS- SEEK CRITIQUE
Mar 5 - Mar 9 MAKE ANY REVISIONS TO ROUGH STORYBOARDS AND BEGIN CLEAN STORYBOARDS
Mar 19 - Mar 23 CONTINUE STORYBOARDS
Mar 26 - Mar30 FINISH STORYBOARDS - SEEK CRITIQUE
Apr 2 - Apr 6 COMPLETE ANY FURTHER REVISIONS AND SCAN STORYBOARD
Apr 9 - Apr 13 CREATE ANIMATIC FROM STORYBOARDS FOR ANIMATION USE.
I admit I am disappointed that I was unable to achieve my goals. I pride myself in being a very hard and dedicated worker, so when I am unsuccessful with meeting goals (even ridiculous ones), I'm unhappy.
But, it has been a learning experience and I feel I have given myself a better time frame to complete my new goals.
My next blog entry will have some examples of my Road to Eldorado storyboards!
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Biting off more than I can chew
Well, it would seem my self inflicted assignment has proven most difficult!
My assignment which entails storyboarding 6 minutes of animated footage requires a lot more work and time than I expected. I've been working on the boards for a number of hours and I have not come close to being 1/2 way complete.
For the sake of completing this assignment swiftly I decided to lower the quality of my work and make the drawings more rough.
Even though I have not completed the boards I still have observed a lot. It is apparent that the storyboard artist for Road to El Dorado had a great sense of design and story telling. There are numerous examples of the rule of thirds as well as framing the focus point.
I'm going to carry on and work on these boards at double speed. Here's hoping that I don't knock myself off schedule too much!!
My assignment which entails storyboarding 6 minutes of animated footage requires a lot more work and time than I expected. I've been working on the boards for a number of hours and I have not come close to being 1/2 way complete.
For the sake of completing this assignment swiftly I decided to lower the quality of my work and make the drawings more rough.
Even though I have not completed the boards I still have observed a lot. It is apparent that the storyboard artist for Road to El Dorado had a great sense of design and story telling. There are numerous examples of the rule of thirds as well as framing the focus point.
I'm going to carry on and work on these boards at double speed. Here's hoping that I don't knock myself off schedule too much!!
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
6 minute storyboard
For this week my task is to create a storyboard for animation between 5-7 minutes in length. This assignment was to help me understand how 5-7 minutes of animation translates into storyboards as I will be creating my own storyboards for an animated short soon.
I chose to storyboard a clip from one of my favourite animated movies "The Road to Eldorado". I chose this movie because it is an awesome movie with great cinematography, layout, poses, expression etc. It seemed like the perfect fit!
The clips I chose are in the form of two youtube clips starting from 6:35 on this clip HERE and going until 4:35 in this clip HERE.
I have begun the storyboarding process and hope to have everything done on the weekend, if not Friday. I realize that this being my first somewhat Big storyboard experience it will take me a decent amount of time. But it will be done!
I chose to storyboard a clip from one of my favourite animated movies "The Road to Eldorado". I chose this movie because it is an awesome movie with great cinematography, layout, poses, expression etc. It seemed like the perfect fit!
The clips I chose are in the form of two youtube clips starting from 6:35 on this clip HERE and going until 4:35 in this clip HERE.
I have begun the storyboarding process and hope to have everything done on the weekend, if not Friday. I realize that this being my first somewhat Big storyboard experience it will take me a decent amount of time. But it will be done!
Monday, January 23, 2012
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Forums
I've come to realize the knowledge ones can obtain via online forums!
HERE is an animation forum I stumbled upon, in this particular conversation the people are discussing storyboards and storyboarding.
I must keep forums in mind, they are an untapped resource for me as I have never really dug too far into them!
HERE is an animation forum I stumbled upon, in this particular conversation the people are discussing storyboards and storyboarding.
I must keep forums in mind, they are an untapped resource for me as I have never really dug too far into them!
Research continues
While continuing my research into storyboard goodness I've come across some great tips that I'm excited to try out for myself.
I uncovered a slew of worksheets provided to me by Ron Doucet while I was trying to do storyboards for a potential job. These worksheets are fabulous and I intend to print them out to aid me with my storyboard bible. These worksheets demonstrate an array of storyboard knowledge that I can't wait to absorb. Also, by Ron Doucet are some great storyboard examples on his website: HERE
On a more tangible level, I discovered a great and apparently common storyboard trick of using Sticky Notes!
While creating the first, rough drafts of storyboards, artists will create each panel individually on sticky notes and attach them to a wall. That way they can stand back and look at the entire storyboard in one go. Should there be any changes needed in the storyboards its just a matter of moving or changing some sticky notes until its perfect! Then the clean up begins! This week I intend to buy TONNES of sticky notes for when I prepare to create my very own storyboards for an exciting up and coming project!
I uncovered a slew of worksheets provided to me by Ron Doucet while I was trying to do storyboards for a potential job. These worksheets are fabulous and I intend to print them out to aid me with my storyboard bible. These worksheets demonstrate an array of storyboard knowledge that I can't wait to absorb. Also, by Ron Doucet are some great storyboard examples on his website: HERE
On a more tangible level, I discovered a great and apparently common storyboard trick of using Sticky Notes!
While creating the first, rough drafts of storyboards, artists will create each panel individually on sticky notes and attach them to a wall. That way they can stand back and look at the entire storyboard in one go. Should there be any changes needed in the storyboards its just a matter of moving or changing some sticky notes until its perfect! Then the clean up begins! This week I intend to buy TONNES of sticky notes for when I prepare to create my very own storyboards for an exciting up and coming project!
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
On the hunt
My task for this week (January 16th-20th) is to do some research on storyboards and storyboard artists.
I would like to find some blogs and/or websites with tips and examples to help me understand what the industry standard is for storyboards.
So far I found a fabulous resource in this website: HERE
It is a blog/website run by Sherm Cohen who has shows such as Spongebob Squarepants, Phineas and Ferb, Hey Arnold (and more) under his belt.
On this site there are some great looks and existing storyboards and some tips such as "How clean is a cleaned up storyboard".
I'm very excited to investigate this site further.
Also for this week I want to collect some documents I have discovered as a bit of a person storyboard bible. I'll need all the help and resources I can get when I begin creating my own storyboards for a super exciting project I will soon be working on!
I would like to find some blogs and/or websites with tips and examples to help me understand what the industry standard is for storyboards.
So far I found a fabulous resource in this website: HERE
It is a blog/website run by Sherm Cohen who has shows such as Spongebob Squarepants, Phineas and Ferb, Hey Arnold (and more) under his belt.
On this site there are some great looks and existing storyboards and some tips such as "How clean is a cleaned up storyboard".
I'm very excited to investigate this site further.
Also for this week I want to collect some documents I have discovered as a bit of a person storyboard bible. I'll need all the help and resources I can get when I begin creating my own storyboards for a super exciting project I will soon be working on!
Let the studies begin!
One of the main reasons I decided to return to school was to oomph up my storyboarding skills (or lack thereof).
When I graduated from animation I was excited and felt empowered with my animation knowledge- but when an opportunity to work as a storyboard artist was presented to me, I was scared! I never really covered storyboards before! I've always loved comics and I always enjoyed seeing storyboards/animatics- but I had never really learned how to properly make them!
Jump to present time; I'm an IMOG student, I've covered some storyboard basics in a Sequential Art class. I got a taste and now I want more!!
Luckily an opportunity for more storyboard goodness was presented to me through the "Self Directed" course available here. In this course I research a subject of my own choice (with the faculty's approval of course) and learn the ins and outs on my own time. the obvious choice for me was storyboards!
So here I am, preparing a blog to keep record of my learning/experiences working with storyboards. On this blog you will find some awesome reference storyboards, some tips and tricks I'll (hopefully) be picking up along the way and some storyboards of my own!
So stay tuned for some boarded stories from your's truly!
When I graduated from animation I was excited and felt empowered with my animation knowledge- but when an opportunity to work as a storyboard artist was presented to me, I was scared! I never really covered storyboards before! I've always loved comics and I always enjoyed seeing storyboards/animatics- but I had never really learned how to properly make them!
Jump to present time; I'm an IMOG student, I've covered some storyboard basics in a Sequential Art class. I got a taste and now I want more!!
Luckily an opportunity for more storyboard goodness was presented to me through the "Self Directed" course available here. In this course I research a subject of my own choice (with the faculty's approval of course) and learn the ins and outs on my own time. the obvious choice for me was storyboards!
So here I am, preparing a blog to keep record of my learning/experiences working with storyboards. On this blog you will find some awesome reference storyboards, some tips and tricks I'll (hopefully) be picking up along the way and some storyboards of my own!
So stay tuned for some boarded stories from your's truly!
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